Is Germany's "left-wing press" promoting the career of a porn star who became famous by "reaching out" to Nazis? No, that's not true: The woman, identified as Emely S., is actually an anti-Nazi activist who first appeared in the German tabloid Bild after she published a video exposing far-right activity in her home state of Saxony. Bild, which is not known for any appreciable left-wing bias, began covering Emely's erotic activities at a later date.
The claim appeared in a Hungarian-language video (archived here) on TikTok on December 13, 2023, under the title "To what depths will the left-wing sink? Is this the future of Western Europe?" (translation from Hungarian to English by Lead Stories staff). The presenter, Dávid Filep (archived here) goes by the pseudonym A kopasz oszt (The bald guy shares) at Megafon Center (archived here), which produces social media content in support of Hungary's governing Fidesz party. Filep says, as translated:
What is this world coming to? This woman in Germany became a famous online porn star by reaching out to Nazis! And the left-wing press is making videos of her!
The video then cuts to a clip (archived here) that appeared on Bild's website on December 12, 2023, showing Emely in various stages of undress. The Hungarian subtitles under Bild's German narration say (as translated):
Brave Emely from Saxony, who is famous for reaching out to a group of Nazis and hangs up Nazi symbols visibly in a garden pavilion. Meanwhile, she has also achieved success on an online erotic platform on which she tries to improve her income.
Filep then comments (as translated):
This is the same Germany where we're presently seeing photos that are similar to the '40s, with Jewish houses marked out with a variety of disgusting antisemitic scrawl ... So, here's this woman, and the left-wing press is gladly promoting her. But seriously, shouldn't Europe's leaders there in Brussels finally wake up and do something? Or are they waiting for the train wagons?
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jan 10 12:30:49 2024 UTC)
Emely is in fact an anti-Nazi partisan who made her debut in Bild in a video published on May 23, 2023, (archived here) titled (translated from German to English by Lead Stories staff) "Swastika flags in the garden pavilion: Emely films a Nazi party, now she's being threatened."
The video describes Emely as a geriatric nurse who filmed a group of men holding a party under a flag featuring a Nazi swastika in Saxony on May 18, 2023. German law (archived here) prohibits the dissemination of "propaganda material ... the content of which is intended to further the activities of a former National Socialist organization," which is understood to include the swastika.
Emely published her video of the party (archived here) on Twitter, now known as X, on May 19, 2023. She also alerted authorities, as evidenced by both Bild's report and the police department's comments on her X post. Soon thereafter, Emely began receiving threats from people she described as neo-Nazis, according to Bild.
It later turned out that far-right gatherings were not the only thing Emely was exposing. On December 12, 2023, Bild published another video (archived here) highlighting Emely's work as a model for OnlyFans, an online service for which subscribers pay for erotic content.
Filep's misinterpretation of Emely's relations with the far right apparently stems from a misunderstanding of the German word "anspricht" in the voiceover on the second Bild video. The original narration (as translated) says Emely:
... became well known because she accosted a group of Nazis who blatantly and visibly hung Nazi symbols in a garden pavilion.
"Anspricht" means "accosted," but can also mean "reached out to," depending on the context. As Emely's video on X clearly shows, she "accosted" a group of beer-drinking men at a party that she considered illegal. The post on X also indicates that Emely was not responsible for hanging up the swastika flag in the garden pavilion, as Filep claims.
Moreover, there is no evidence that politics played any role in Bild's decision to interview Emely, as Filep suggests. Bild is known for its salacious stories, not for its left-wing partisanship. In fact, a Bloomberg News article published on December 8, 2015, (archived here) describes Bild as a "right-wing tabloid" that has been "the bête noire of German liberals."
